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Blue Mountains residents ponder next moves

ELIZABETH JACKSON: For the communities across New South Wales battling the state's worst bushfires in a decade, today brings some respite.

While six areas remain under "watch and act" notices around the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast, there are no longer any emergency warnings in force, but it's not the end of the threat.

Fire crews are now battling to gain the upper hand during a predicted 24 hour window before potentially catastrophic conditions return again tomorrow.

And residents are being warned that this is an emergency that could last for weeks, not days.

One man died while defending his property at the height of the emergency and at least two volunteer firefighters have been injured.

In the Blue Mountains fire fighters today are hoping that interstate reinforcements will help bring fires under control.

As the effort continues, some families in the area spent a second night urgently looking for accommodation after their homes burnt down.

Tom Nightingale reports from one of the evacuation centres in Springwood.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Among the piles of clothes and linen, and the stacks of boxes and cans of food were families waiting to return to their homes once it was safe to do so.

But some were getting supplies and seeking advice because their homes had burnt to the ground.

Among them was Angela and her husband.

Friends had told them their house at Yellow Rock had burnt down, but they were preparing to go and see it for themselves.

ANGELA: You can say to yourself 'the house is gone', but until you actually stand in front of it and go 'my house is gone', I don't think it… it won't… (becomes emotional).

TOM NIGHTINGALE: On top of that, Angela and her husband are also trying to find somewhere to live.

ANGELA: Tonight, we're currently staying with some friends up at Springwood. The fire was close to their house this afternoon but it looks like it's alright.

We were holed up in a motel room last night, but now I think we're just at the stage of coming to grips with what's happened. We look like we might have some accommodation here at Springwood, a rental. Again, friends have pulled out all stops - all we've had is phone calls and texts all day.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Cynthia Rimmer volunteers for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and is helping people find emergency accommodation.

While she hasn't kept numbers, she estimates in the past 24 hours she's helped 50 or 60 families, mostly into hotels.

CYNTHIA RIMMER: Well for short term it's about one to seven days, and then they get passed on to Department of Housing after that, and they help them to find other accommodation that's more suitable. Some of the difficulties actually are that some people have a cat, two dogs, a budgie, goldfish, you know, and all that has to go into the motel where they're staying. That can be quite challenging for some of them.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: So have you managed to find a hotel that can accommodate…

CYNTHIA RIMMER: Yes, I have - not exactly all those together, but two dogs and a cat is not strange, and there was a little frill-necked lizard that went into a motel, so it's not bad really. They don't normally take these sorts of things, but because of the situation, people have been very co-operative, very good.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Bruce McDonald is an assistant commissioner of the Rural Fire Service and says fire crews will be back-burning this weekend to try and restrict the blaze while they can.

BRUCE MCDONALD: Firefighters will be doing that; and quite often people see that as additional fire. Quite often after an event like this, it's alarming, but it is us tidying up what we call our hard lines and making sure it's safe for the community.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Those who've lost their homes now have to decide if they'll rebuild.

Angela says for her family, it won't be a rushed decision.

ANGELA: We'll have to assess whether we can rebuild; whether the slab can be rebuilt on, whether we want to rebuild - all sorts of things. We've got our son's school to think about, so we have to live up here near our son's school.

So yeah, these are some big decisions for us, in terms of what we want to do in the future too, but we're not going to make those straight away.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: That's Angela, who lost her home at Yellow Rock in the Blue Mountains on Thursday. Tom Nightingale with that report.

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